Destinations

Features

Hotels

Tours

Mälardrottningen

Docked at Riddarholmen in Stockholm’s harbour with panoramic island views, this boat hotel, built in 1924, offers up a taste of the city’s maritime flair. From modest-sized sailor cabins to a sprawling owner’s cabin, Mälardrottningen is a portal into Stockholm’s past, complete with seafaring novelty.

Check availability

Rooms from

£61per night

Check-in

Check-out

Occupancy

Rooms

Adults

Children

Ages of children

Location

9/10

Mälardrottningen is permanently docked along Riddarholmen island, a mere 200 metres from Stockholm’s old town, Gamla stan, with enviable straight-on views of the islands of Södermalm and Kungsholmen. Its photogenic location is its greatest asset. The yacht only leaves its location every three years for routine maintenance.

Style & character

7/10

Built in 1924 as the world’s first motorised diesel yacht, Mälardrottningen was gifted to Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton on her 18th birthday. She in turn gifted it to the Royal British Navy for one pound sterling. From stints in the Navy to decades as a passenger ship, it was finally retired and converted into a floating hotel in 1982.

Its interior décor pays homage to the nautical – from dark mahogany furniture paired with dark green leather armchairs and old gas lamps, to pressure gauges converted into clocks, anchors, and other maritime details. Newspaper clippings from its past, old illustrations and historical photographs of Barbara Hutton and seafaring maps have been framed as artwork gracing cabin walls. Mälardrottningen’s golden emblem seal is patterned throughout navy-blue carpeting running through its hallways.

Service & facilities

7/10

Beyond a traditional sauna, a 24/7 reception and public parking outside, Mälardrottningen is light on facilities due to its limited architecture. The 'Machine Room', a common area for meetings or relaxing with a book, has a large glass floor with a direct view into the ship’s mechanical room. Its rooftop deck bar is popular during long summer days among locals with its 360-degree panoramic view of four of Stockholm's islands.

Bar

Laundry

Restaurant

Sauna

Wi-Fi

Rooms

7/10

About 80 per cent of its very simple 61 cabins are made up of bunk bed configurations with very similar décor – blue upholstery with dark cherry-wood furniture and framed charts and photographs hanging on walls. Circular windows look out directly over Lake Mälaren and during very high tide, inside the lake itself in lower deck cabins.

Three suites – Owner’s Cabin, Captain’s Cabin and Chart Cabin – share the same colour schemes but offer up a lot more space. The Owner’s cabin has its own furnished and covered patio deck. All bathrooms are small, similar, and very basic with black and white tiles and showers.

Food & drink

7/10

Complimentary breakfast with the likes of pancakes and scrambled eggs is served in the hotel's open plan, very airy upper-deck restaurant, which has lovely views overlooking the water and several islands. Its dinner cuisine is classic European with a limited à la carte menu serving options such as grilled Hereford steak with truffle béarnaise and asparagus (SEK 225/£21). There are two bars, including an outdoor Captain’s Bar on its top deck with black wicker seating and potted plants, serving martinis and margaritas for SEK 153 (£14).

Mälardrottningen is also known for its seasonal Christmas Julbord during the month of December – a traditional Swedish smörgåsbord buffet of pickled herring, cured salmon and meatballs, to name a few items.